Archive of Our Own

For many years, Mike had grown accustomed to working the night shifts alone at the company. Several parapsychologists tended to avoid staying that late for various reasons, but he seemed to enjoy it. It was quieter and more peaceful than mornings or afternoons, something he deeply appreciated as it allowed him to be at peace with his thoughts and do much more meticulous work.

However, a few days ago, that suddenly changed when his boss, Bill, had warned him that he would soon be assigned a new partner. Someone who had recently joined the team along with the new hires. It seemed his boss had grown tired of his “lone wolf” dynamic, and although he tried to protest, in the end he had no choice but to resign himself to it.

The man had mixed feelings about that sudden decision, in which he had no say. It would soon be seven years since he’d started working alone, and honestly, he’d prefer it to stay that way, even though the rest of his friends occasionally insisted that he should have a partner, and that going solo meant more weight on his shoulders and more delays with the cases. Although, to tell the truth, they were somewhat right; the fact that he didn’t want to admit it openly was a completely different matter.

All that time he’d been mulling it over, wondering what kind of person his new partner would be, whether they’d get along or end up hating each other by the end of their first case together, or whether they were a rookie who needed to be taught the ropes or a pro who didn’t even need to look at the company’s handbook.

Because, to make things even more complicated, his boss hadn’t even bothered to mention this new person’s name. As usual. However, that night he would finally meet them.

By the time the clock struck 8:37 PM, Mike parked his car on the block in front of the company building. As he got out, the cool night breeze made him shiver slightly, and he pulled his coat tighter, muttering a small curse. He wasn’t a big fan of winter when it came to work, since the cold temperatures usually interfered with investigations, making them a bit more difficult and slow.

He quickened his pace a bit, shoving his hands into his pockets as he crossed the street. At that hour there were few people around and not many cars either, so he didn’t bother using the crosswalk a few meters further down at the corner of the block.

Once inside, he walked toward the elevator and pressed the button for the 13th floor. It didn’t take long to arrive; he was welcomed by a few lights on and a faint aroma of coffee wafting from the kitchen, which drew him in like a moth to a flame. He couldn’t say no to a good cup before starting that shift. In fact, at that point, it was something he couldn’t do without in his routine.

“You got here earlier than I thought.”

Dave’s figure peeked through the kitchen door, holding a steaming cup of coffee, and Mike automatically smiled when he saw him.

“What are you doing here so late? It’s not usual to see you in the office at this hour.”

“You’re the one who got here way too early,” he shrugged with a smile before bringing the cup to his lips and taking a sip. “But to be honest, I decided to stay a little later. I’m finishing up a report I’ve been putting off for months.”

The dark-haired man raised an eyebrow in disbelief as he stepped past the other man to enter the kitchen and pour himself some coffee.

“Are you finishing it, or did Bill threaten to dock your pay so you’d do it?” he asked with a chuckle as he pulled a cup from a cabinet and turned toward the coffee maker to pour himself some. Once he’d filled it, he added a spoonful of sugar and took a sip. The warmth and faint sweetness of the liquid made him sigh with pleasure.

“Tsk. I prefer to call it… ‘an incentive,’” he made an exaggerated gesture with one hand to emphasize the word as if he were talking about something amazing.

Mike couldn’t help but laugh.

“Incentive. I see.”

“By the way,” Dave said, suddenly catching his attention, “Are you ready to work with her tonight?”

Mike raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise at the words.

“Is a woman?”

"Bill didn’t tell you?” Dave looked at him with surprise equal to his own.

“He didn’t even tell me her name, for starters.”

Dave burst out laughing, shaking his head. Bill had a bad habit of telling everyone about the new recruits, except the people he actually needed to talk to about it.

“Oh, that’s a classic…” Dave sighed, but there was still a twinkle of amusement in his eyes. “But now that you mention it, I’ll let you discover everything for yourself. The only thing I’ll tell you is that you wouldn’t even be able to imagine the specialty she works in."

That comment managed to catch Mike’s attention. Although he had been somewhat reluctant to welcome a new partner at first, now he couldn’t help but feel a bit of curiosity and a little eagerness to get started on the job.

“It’s already rare enough to see a female parapsychologist, and you’re telling me she has a specialty too?” he asked incredulously. “Come on, Farrell. You’re killing me here.”

His partner just smiled at him, clearly amused by Mike’s reaction. He loved teasing him and getting under his skin a little.

“Forget it, Mike. Find out for yourself.”

Then, right after those words, the sound of the front door opening was heard. Shinoda looked at Dave as if he’d just confessed to a serious crime.

“You’re a wizard."

Dave let out another laugh, this time louder.

“God’s timing is divine,” he said between laughs, as he wiped an imaginary tear from his eye.

“Looks like you’re having fun.”

A voice Mike didn’t recognize sounded behind them. Immediately, both men turned around, and in front of them they saw a fair-skinned woman with dyed blonde hair pulled back into a loose bun and blue eyes. She was dressed in a smart-casual style and carried a black briefcase in her left hand. That caught Mike’s attention. What was she carrying in there? Usually, all the equipment was provided by the company itself, and no one needed to bring anything.

“Emily!” Dave smiled, stepping forward to greet the woman with a hug, which she welcomed.

Mike raised an eyebrow. They had greeted each other so warmly that they seemed like lifelong friends.

“Do you two already know each other?” the dark-haired man asked curiously.

“From before the company? Not at all,” Farrell shook his head. “But she spent two weeks with us on the afternoon shifts.”

The other man gave a slight look of surprise before nodding slowly.

“And they moved you to the night shift?” Mike’s gaze turned to Emily, who smiled at him.

“I requested the transfer,” she admitted, extending her hand toward him to greet him. “I assume you’re Mike Shinoda? My name is Emily Armstrong.”

Immediately he raised his free hand to shake hers. Her skin was warm compared to his, which was usually a bit colder.

“That’s right,” he confirmed with a small smile, letting go of her hand. “I think you’ll be stuck with me for quite a while.”

“Stuck?” The blonde raised one eyebrow amusedly. “We’ll see who ends up stuck with whom.”

That response made the man chuckle a little. It was bold, but pleasant.

Dave gave her a playful nudge.

“I think you two are going to get along just well,” the man murmured before heading for the exit with his coffee cup, and when he was in the doorway, he waved goodbye. “I’ll go about my business. Good luck to you both!”

When he was out of sight, Mike turned to his new partner.

“Want something to drink before we go?” he asked, lifting his own coffee cup slightly to take another sip.

The woman shook her head.

“No, thanks,” she smiled kindly. “I’ll wait until you’re done with yours.”

Mike smiled back at her and took another quick sip from his cup.

“Bill didn’t tell me a single thing about you,” he remarked with a hint of amusement in his voice. “I’m just now finding out your name.”

Emily let out a hearty laugh.

“Me neither. The guys told me your name a few days ago,” she replied, pulling out one of the chairs at the dining table to sit down. She set her briefcase aside on the floor. “So we’re pretty much on the same page.”

The man snorted and rolled his eyes. A few seconds later, he sat down next to the woman.

“With Bill, people’s identities are always a surprise. He has this awful habit of not telling you anything, but telling the rest of the world everything,“ she shook her head in disapproval, yet amused at the same time. ”So… Dave was telling me you have a specialty, right?"

“Something like that,” she replied, making a vague gesture with her hand. “But it wouldn’t be as fun if I told you now, would it?”

“Want me to guess?” he raised one of his eyebrows.

“Want to try?” she challenged him with a smile.

Mike narrowed his eyes slightly. His competitive streak kicked in instantly.

“Energy theorist?”

“No.”

“Clinical?”

“Mmmm… No.”

“Forensic?”

“That would be cool,” she admitted.

“Transpersonal? Extrasensory perception?”

Emily shook her head. There was an obvious look of amusement on her face at the man’s attempts at guessing.

“You’ve left me with no options,” the man sighed.

“I suppose you’ll find out in due time,” she said, shrugging.

Mike shifted his gaze to the briefcase and nodded in its direction.

"Does it have anything to do with whatever you’re carrying in there?"

The blonde couldn’t help but smile.

"How perceptive."

The two stayed in the office for at least fifteen extra minutes, chatting a bit more to get to know each other better. Apparently, Emily had come from another group of paranormal investigators where she had worked for about seventeen years before deciding to take some time off for personal reasons. She had been out of the field for about three years, and she quickly landed the position within the organization thanks to her resume. What’s more, she hadn’t gone through any kind of preliminary screening, which surprised Mike.

When they finally left the office, they headed to the parking lot in search of the equipped truck. On the way, Mike set out to check the details of the case they would be handling that night; but as soon as he saw the address, he frowned slightly. That gesture didn’t go unnoticed by Emily, who looked at him curiously.

“Is something wrong?”

The man looked up from his phone.

“No, it’s nothing,” he reassured her, tucking his phone into his coat before searching for the truck keys and unlocking it. “I was just surprised by where they sent us,” he said before climbing into the driver’s seat, followed by the woman, who took the passenger seat.

The blonde set her briefcase at her feet and fastened her seatbelt.

“The abandoned mental hospital in Boyle Heights, right? ‘Linda Vista’?”

The other nodded as he fastened his own seatbelt and then started the vehicle.

“Yeah,” Mike said, placing his hands on the steering wheel once he put the car in reverse to pull out. “They usually send four of us when it comes to places this big.”

Emily let out a soft sigh and smiled wryly.

“Great. We’ll have fun combing the whole place for about four hours before we even find any sign that the place is infested. How exciting.”

The man couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. His new partner had a good sense of sarcastic humor, and he liked that.

“Have you ever visited the sanatorium?” Mike asked, pulling out of the parking lot onto the street. The drive would take about an hour and fifteen minutes.

“Sounds like you want to lock me up in there,” she said with a playful tone in her voice.

“Oh, yeah. That’s exactly what I meant.”

There was a silence of just a few seconds before they both burst out laughing.

“You got me. Maybe they should lock me up in one,” Emily joked.

Mike, for his part, smiled broadly. He’d liked her right away, and he had a feeling their dynamic at work was going to be just as good. Although the thought led him to reminisce about the old days with his former partner.

Before his mind started to wander off on that, he let out a sigh and turned on the radio to distract himself with some music. That gesture sparked a bit more conversation about musical tastes, and he soon realized he had more in common with Emily than he’d thought.

The drive to the location took a little longer than originally planned, though it was pleasant thanks to the conversation with the woman, and upon arrival, they were met by a couple of guards.

“Huh. I thought they’d abandoned the place,” Emily said, raising an eyebrow. A guard approached her window, asking her to roll it down. She complied.

“The real estate agent in charge called a security firm to clear the building of intruders,” Mike explained as he pulled his wallet from his coat pocket, looking for his ID and credentials to show the guard. Emily did the same.

As soon as the guard confirmed their identities, he nodded, letting them through.

“And I thought we were on our own,” she admitted, glancing around the place. It was quite large for just two people. “I was secretly hoping to use my knife.”

As soon as she said those words, Mike slowly turned his gaze to look at her with a mixture of surprise and concern.

“I don’t know if I want to know whether that was sarcasm or not.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” the blonde replied with a smile on her face.

Incredulous, yet somehow amused by the woman’s attitude, he snorted and smiled back before continuing on his way to park in front of the building.

As they drew closer, the old mental asylum began to come into view, standing imposing and eerie. The darkness of the night and the floodlights they’d installed in front of the entrance made the place look even more macabre than it would in daylight. It seemed like the perfect setting for a horror movie.

“It’s bigger than I thought,” Emily remarked, grimacing slightly as she imagined how long it would take them to search the place for any sign of paranormal activity, her gaze fixed on the building through the window.

From Mike’s perspective, she didn’t seem at all disturbed by the eeriness of the place. It was most likely due to her years of experience.

The man finally let out a sigh as he unbuckled his seatbelt. He wasn’t particularly excited about exploring the place for hours on end, and even less so at night, because even though he only worked night shifts, he still had some regard for his sleep schedule.

“Should we have brought coffee in a thermos?” he asked, glancing around the site and inwardly regretting having accepted the case. “I keep wondering why the hell Bill sent just the two of us. A place like this warrants at least four investigators.”

“He must have his reasons,” the blonde huffed, unbuckling her belt before opening the door. “We can make his life miserable by complaining later. Right now we have to work, and the sooner we start, the sooner we’ll finish.”

Mike smiled at her words. He was growing increasingly fond of the woman’s personality and the way she carried herself. She seemed pragmatic and efficient, qualities he appreciated and expected in a coworker.

He was beginning to understand a little why she’d been assigned to him. Bill didn’t do things randomly and knew his team very well. He wasn’t going to pair him with someone who wasn’t on his level, and she seemed to be a perfect fit.

They both got out of the truck to start carrying all their equipment into the building. When he opened the front door, it creaked, and the sound echoed through the lobby and the rest of the hallways in the back, creating a gloomy atmosphere. As expected, there were no lights on. The electrical panel probably didn’t even work but maybe they could check it later. For now, they would have to make use of their flashlights, which they shone into the building as they entered.

It was clear that the place had been abandoned for quite a few years. There was visible dust in the air and on surfaces, cobwebs in the corners, some trash on the floor, and even the paint on the walls was peeling. The hospital wasn’t falling apart solely because it was built of concrete.

“I see why they call it ‘Linda Vista,’” Emily said ironically. She shone her flashlight around, curiously examining every detail she could make out.

The dark-haired man stifled a laugh and shook his head as if scolding her for the joke. Although it had been a good one.

 “Funny,” Mike said, setting the bag with the equipment on the floor. “I’ll go see if we have access to the building’s security cameras. Call me on the radio if you need anything. This might take a while if I have to set everything up from scratch.”

Emily nodded before the man disappeared through the door toward the truck, not without first pulling a radio out of his bag.

When she was alone, she set her briefcase aside and began taking out some of the items her partner had brought: an EMF meter and a digital thermometer. She turned on the meter and tucked it into her coat pocket along with the other item. If anything happened, the EMF meter would alert her with a beep.

“Did you have any luck?” the woman asked a few minutes after pulling another radio out of her bag and turning it on.

The device beeped before Mike’s voice came through it.

“I wish," he sighed. "It’ll take me five to ten minutes to establish the connection, so…”

The woman snorted.

“Do you mind if I explore a little?”

“Go ahead. That way we won’t waste time.”

After getting the green light, Emily tucked the radio into her belt and began moving through the place.

The silence in the hospital was so intense that her footsteps echoed loudly even though she was walking slowly and carefully. People might call her weird, but she loved the atmosphere of abandoned places like this. She was drawn to them, and in her mind, she could only imagine the kinds of stories those places held. Although each mental image was more gloomy and terrifying than the last… on purpose.

The light from her flashlight illuminated every room she passed. None of them particularly caught her attention, as most were empty and it was rare for a ghost or entity to be in the front rooms of this kind of place due to the low concentration of negative energy, so she ignored them.

She walked a little further until she came to a hallway on the left and another on the right, as well as stairs in front of her leading to the floor below and the upper floors.

She mulled over her decision for several seconds. There was something about the lower floor that drew her in, and generally, her intuition didn’t fail her: she was going to find something interesting there; but also, heeding her inner urban explorer, she opted to check out the rest of the building before heading down. So, relying on her boundless curiosity and her flashlight, she took the hallway on the right.

Along that path, she came across several rooms that appeared to have been medical wings and offices, judging by the equipment and furniture still there. There was also some trash and graffiti on the walls, evidence of the people who had entered the facility, so the presence of the private security firm wasn't for nothing.

Although her comment about carrying a knife was true, she was actually grateful she didn’t even have to think about using it. That part had just been a little dark joke. Who in their right mind would want to get caught up in a situation dangerous enough to require defending themselves through violence?

Not her. That was for sure.

After walking for a few minutes, she turned into another hallway where there were a couple of large doors. Upon entering the room, she could tell it was a common area because of how large and spacious it was. Moonlight streamed in through the windows, revealing what looked like a rather neglected garden or courtyard outside.

To her left was a door leading to that courtyard, but she chose not to go near it and simply kept walking.

At one point, just as she was passing in front of what had once been a kitchen, the EMF meter in her pocket beeped. When she took it out, it showed a level 3 reading.

She smiled.

“I’ll take that as an invitation,” she said, before entering the room.

───── ✦ ─────

Back in the truck, Mike was finishing up setting up the building’s security cameras on the computer. As soon as he was done, real-time footage from the psychiatric hospital appeared on his monitor.

All the trucks had at least one computer in the back, in addition to other equipment they usually used, such as screens for other electromagnetic field readings and speakers for ambient microphones in large places like that.

He began to make his way through the various security camera feeds. The front desk, hallways, common areas, restrooms, medical wings… There were no signs of orbs, and everything looked calm.

Except perhaps for Emily, who was leaning against a kitchen counter, swinging her feet while staring at the digital thermometer in one of her hands. Mike caught a glimpse of the EMF meter in her other hand.

The scene made him chuckle a little, and he picked up his radio, which was sitting on the desk. Bringing it to his mouth, he pressed the button to turn it on.

“Are you having fun?”

He saw the woman startle on the screen, sit up quickly, and drop one of her tools to grab the radio.

“Okay, first of all,” the woman gasped, “don’t yell at me.”

Mike burst out laughing at her reaction.

“Am I that loud?”

“No, I’m exaggerating, ” she said, laughing softly and running a hand through her hair, trying to relax a little after the scare her partner had given her. “You caught me off guard. Don’t do that.”

The man’s expression in the truck softened slightly.

“Sorry,” he muttered. “What are you doing in the kitchen, anyway?”

His words made the blonde look around in all directions until she found the camera. She pointed it at him for a few brief seconds and smiled.

“Congratulations on turning the cameras on,” she said, before stepping down from the counter and putting the thermometer back in her pocket to wipe her clothes down a bit. She did the same with the EMF meter. “The meter gave me a slight reading of 3 here, but the temperature is stable. It must have been because you turned on the cameras.”

“So it’s my fault,” he joked a little.

“It is, thanks,” she teased back. “I wasted about two minutes of my life.”

Mike let out a sigh, still smiling, and leaned slightly against the desk.

“Well, we have…” he paused to glance at the clock on the computer, “the whole night to check the more than 60 rooms here. It’s barely 11:40 p.m."

The woman whimpered, and Mike watched her slump back onto the counter.

“Can we kill Bill tomorrow?”

The dark-haired man snorted with amusement.

“Believe me, if it weren’t illegal, I’d have agreed in less than two seconds,” he admitted before he went back to reviewing the security cameras to check the rest of the place. “Which route did you take, Em?”

“I went through the east side. First floor.”

“Got it,” he replied, reconfiguring the camera software once more to keep them recording. “I’ll go in now to cover the west side. Let me know if you find anything interesting.”

“Got it, boss,” she joked in a nasal tone.

The man made sure once again that the recording was running before stepping out of the truck. That way, if anything strange happened in any of the main rooms or hallways, they would have the footage to analyze later.

When he reached the entrance, he walked over to pick up the bag, and next to it he noticed Emily’s briefcase. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t tempted to open it, but that wasn’t going to be possible anyway because it was locked with a code. It would likely take longer to figure it out than to find traces of the alleged entity, and besides, he didn’t want to get in trouble with his new partner, so he gave up and slung the bag across his shoulder.

He entered the building with a flashlight, glancing around as he walked. It didn’t take him long to realize that Emily was right. Everything was very quiet. Not even the sounds from outside managed to seep in. No wonder the radio had taken her by surprise; he would surely react the same way at some point if the woman spoke to him.

As he came upon the staircases and hallways that he assumed Emily had also encountered, he felt something strange. He didn’t know exactly how to describe it, but the closest he could come was a kind of pressure in the air. It was faint, but it was definitely there.

His mind quickly attributed this to the stagnant, negative energy of the place, because something like that—especially in places as old and steeped in history as this one—was a recurring phenomenon. He had learned that over the many years he’d worked as a paranormal investigator.

Without giving it much more thought, Mike took the left path just as he had told his partner, and as he walked down the hallway he noticed in greater detail just how dilapidated the building was. He soon found himself thinking about the thousands of dollars that would have to be spent just to fix up the place. An absurd amount of money he could only dream of having, and it wasn’t that he didn’t make good money at his job; in fact, it was a pretty decent salary, but who didn’t dream of being a multimillionaire, right?

After ten minutes of silent exploration, the man contacted Emily again via radio.

“I’m filing a formal complaint against Bill first thing tomorrow,” he warned playfully. “If they hadn’t called the security company, I’m almost certain we would’ve run into a drug addict or a homeless person. Not to mention the waste of time.”

Emily didn’t take long to respond.

“Do they even pay extra for just the two of us covering such a ridiculously huge establishment?”

The man snorted, rounding a corner.

“If we bat our eyelashes at him and bring him coffee for a week, maybe he’ll consider it.”

There were a few seconds of silence from Emily before her voice came through the radio again.

“I already hate Bill.”

Mike couldn’t suppress the laughter her words provoked. The sound echoed throughout the room.

“He can be a pain in the neck sometimes, but you’ll get used to it. Or so I think,” he murmured, entering a room that appeared to be an office. There was still some old, dust-covered furniture left. “Though Bill had better be glad we find something interesting and not just ‘bad vibes.’”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Technically, they sent us ‘just in case.’ For a ‘diagnosis,’ as Bill likes to call it,” he explained. “The sanatorium hasn’t had any reports of strange occurrences, but the guy who wants to turn this into a nursing home is a bit superstitious.”

“Ah, that makes sense,” she replied. "No one bothers to energetically cleanse places like this. Although, actually… No one ever bothers with that. The manager must have some pretty deep-seated beliefs."

“I think so too,” he said as she propped his flashlight against the antique desk so he could rummage through his bag. From it he pulled out a digital thermometer and an EMF meter, the same strategy as Emily’s. “Let me know if you find anything. I’m going to walk around here a bit and then see if I go up to the second floor."

“Sure. I’ll talk to you later.”

After that, that deafening silence returned.

Mike left the office to continue walking down that dark, seemingly endless hallway. In his free hand, he held the digital thermometer to check the room temperature, which he did every five meters. The readings remained stable on both devices for fifteen minutes. He had checked most of the rooms, unlike Emily, and at some point, he found himself back at that intersection of hallways.

Now he had two options: search the second floor or the basement, but he had made up his mind several minutes ago.

The moment the man set foot on the ground floor, a chill ran through his body. The temperature was lower than on the first floor, and the air much thicker, but he attributed it to the humidity and lack of ventilation, which were common in basements; though the only thing he couldn’t explain was the sudden pressure in his head. Things like that had happened to him more than once, and he always brushed it off as lack of sleep or simple dehydration, but this time he’d slept and drunk enough water to function like anyone else, so the sudden discomfort struck him as odd. 

He didn’t want to dwell too much on the implications of it, because despite working in a field as questionable as paranormal investigation, Mike was a fairly logical and rational person. Most of his colleagues, who weren’t as “skeptical” as he was, used to tease him about the irony of his situation, but it was precisely because of his skepticism that he wanted to explore that world unknown to many.

Even Chester used to laugh and tease him for that very reason.

Oh. 

The sudden memory of his former partner and best friend made him smile slightly with nostalgia. He surely would have noticed his unease without him even saying a word, and would have sent him back to the truck to take a short break, even though he knew Mike hated leaving the investigations, even if only for a few minutes. 

That was something that had happened so many times he couldn’t even remember exactly how many. He just had a way of getting his own way. 

With a sigh, he shook all those thoughts from his head to stay focused on his work, and moved forward to survey the site. There were several doors that surely led to places like the boiler room or laundry, and after opening a couple, he knew he was right.

Suddenly, his radio crackled, and Emily’s voice came through:

“Hey, Mike. Are you on the second floor? I didn’t find anything in my section of the first floor.”

The man gave a little start and let out a soft laugh at the surprise it had caused him. He was right. The exact same thing had happened to him as it had to the woman when she was in the kitchen.

He took a deep breath to sigh and recover from the little scare before picking up his radio and replying:

“Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything either,” he murmured. “I went down to the basement. Let’s see if I have a little more luck there.”

There was a brief silence before the woman answered again, a hint of exaggerated disappointment in her voice.

“I wanted to check it out.”

Mike just let out a laugh that echoed through the hallways of the ground floor.

“If you want, we can switch.”

“Nah, you keep it. You’re already down there anyway,” she replied after a few seconds.

—Got it, boss, Mike joked, using the same nasal tone of voice she’d used with him a long time ago.

After that conversation, the man continued on his way, but he couldn’t help but think about Emily for a while. There was something about her that, somehow, felt right. Even though he’d only known her for a few hours, he felt comfortable and at ease enough to joke around with her a little. Although it made him feel a little guilty, he couldn’t help but draw a comparison with his former partner, with whom he’d once felt a similar connection. It wasn’t the same, of course not, but it was close enough, and that gave him pause.

Maybe they would have gotten along.

The thought made him smile a little. Yes, perhaps that could have been the case given their apparent similarity, but… It was a shame they hadn’t crossed paths.

Chester’s death had been abrupt and strange. Even though the official version pointed to a simple but unfortunate accident, Mike always thought there was more to it than that. A completely different reason. And every now and then, he wondered if he could have prevented it. Maybe he’d be there with him now, playing a couple of pranks on him and talking nonstop over the radio about the silliest things he could think of.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips as he thought about it. He missed him more than anything. He had been his best friend, and they had been there for each other in so many aspects of life that, technically, there wasn’t a single thing they didn’t know about each other. Sometimes they even thought so alike that it was as if they were reading each other’s minds.

But none of that would ever come back, and Mike knew it. Even though it hurt him to the very core of his soul.

───── ✦ ─────

Emily walked through a couple of rooms without much interest. Since that false alarm in the kitchen she hadn’t managed to pick up on anything else for twenty minutes. That made her sigh wearily and curse Bill again in her mind for sending them to such a ridiculously huge place. The building had five floors, not counting the basement. Five damn floors that just the two of them had to cover. What kind of psychopath was her new boss? The more she thought about everything they had to check, the more she started to get angry and lose her patience.

She wasn’t the kind of person who sat idly by in the face of an injustice, so as soon as she had the chance, she’d go talk to that guy. That could only turn out very well, or very badly, but she’d rather lose the damn job than have to spend another whole night trying to inspect an old psychiatric hospital without any help from other people. Or at least, that’s what she thought in the midst of her frustration. Losing the job really wasn’t in her best interest, and living off her savings forever wasn’t the plan either.

After a long while with no activity or signs of anything, she decided to head back the same way she’d come. On the way, her frustration subsided a bit, and her mind began to wander to memories of her colleagues at the old company she’d worked for before it closed. Sean and Susan had probably been the best investigators she’d ever worked with—they’d even become close friends—but after that company went under, they’d decided to take a break from active paranormal fieldwork, opting for a much more laid-back line of work, such as conducting various types of training or simply pursuing a specialty. She didn’t blame them; she’d done practically the same thing, though she’d later returned to field investigation.

When she reached the intersection of the hallways, she turned on her radio.

“Hey, Mike. Are you on the second floor?” she asked, glancing up the stairs. “I didn’t find anything in my section of the first floor.”

The radio crackled a few moments later.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything either,” he murmured. “I went down to the basement. Let’s see if I have a little more luck there.”

Emily stopped on the stairs, leaning dramatically on the railing as if she’d been injured. She laughed at herself for her over-the-top reaction.

“I wanted to check it out,” she replied.

The dark-haired man’s laughter could be heard both over the radio and in the distance downstairs.

“If you want, we can switch.”

The woman sighed resignedly, much to her regret.

“Nah, you keep it. You’re already down there anyway.”

“Got it, boss,” Mike joked, using the same nasal tone of voice she’d used with him a while ago.

She just laughed and readjusted her radio on her belt to start going up the stairs, but as she approached the second floor, she began to feel a little uneasy.

It wasn’t the first time something like that had happened to her in the middle of an investigation, but this time it felt a little different. That uneasiness she was beginning to feel didn’t seem to be driven by her curiosity to see what was on the basement level—no, this was something else. It was the kind of uneasiness that preceded something bad. A bad feeling.

Emily wished with all her might that it was just paranoia; after all, she had been walking alone through the hallways of an old psychiatric hospital for over twenty-five minutes, not to mention that, at the same time, she was imagining the most horrific things that could have happened in that place. Put that way, it made sense, didn’t it? That must be the reason. However, her intuition told her otherwise, and doubting it was a lost bet. Many times she had tried to ignore that “alarm” that went off at certain moments, and depending on what it was about, it felt more or less uncomfortable.

And right now, that alarm was being very annoying.

It could be anything, and the sheer range of possibilities overwhelmed Emily. Who knew if there was anyone else in the building? Or worse yet, what if the company hadn’t thoroughly inspected the site and they found a body? In places like that, the chances of that happening weren’t low. In fact, it was quite likely. The mere thought made the woman shudder, as she had never encountered anything like that before, and she hoped this wouldn’t be her first time—otherwise, on top of the trauma, she’d have to explain a lot of things to the police.

The hallways stretching out before her had ceased to seem intriguing and had begun to make her uneasy with their loneliness and the eerie play of light produced by the moonlight. She even startled herself when she caught a glimpse of the shadows shifting every time she shone her flashlight elsewhere. Her mind was starting to play tricks on her, and like any human being, she was falling for it.

At one point, just as she was turning right down a hallway, a door in front of her opened slowly, creaking in a way that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The EMF meter activated shortly after, registering a brief reading of 3 mG.

Emily let out a sigh, followed by a nervous laugh.

“You scared me, you win,” she said aloud, as if she were talking to someone else. She slipped her free hand into her pocket in search of her phone and opened the camera app to start recording a video aimed at the door. “Do you think you can do that again, or was it just to startle me?”

She waited a few moments for something to happen, but nothing did. The woman huffed in disappointment.

“Come on, you were here literally two seconds ago,” she complained. Something about talking to herself and making a fool of herself over something she didn’t even know was an entity or not, made her nervousness subside considerably.

When she accepted that there wouldn’t be any other kind of manifestation, she sighed again, stopped the video recording, and continued moving forward. Just as she was a couple of steps in front of that door, she heard the creak again along with the EMF reader going off. That made the woman throw her head back, growling.

“You’ve got to be kidding me, right?” she turned, shining her flashlight at the door, staring at it as if the poor thing were to blame. “You’re the worst,” she muttered with feigned anger before continuing on, making a mental note of the manifestation in that section of the building.

It was common for things like that to happen. A small manifestation here and there, with no clear sign of the entity’s actual location.

Emily had witnessed it more times than she could remember, and had come to the conclusion that some “ghosts” liked to mess with people. Although, to tell the truth, if she had the chance to do it, she’d probably do the same.

Her exploration of the second floor went on for another fifteen minutes without anything new happening. At some point, she contacted Mike to let him know about the apparition, but told him not to bother coming up, since it was surely just the entity wandering around and not its true location. He thanked her for the information, told her he was still hanging around the basement, and after that, she didn’t hear from him again, leaving her alone once more with the silence and the darkness. Although, she was a little more relaxed now than before. That worry that had come out of nowhere had been pushed to some corner deep in her mind, which was now wandering to other things.

But as she walked back down the hallway toward the stairs, something happened that defied any logical explanation. In front of her, the hallway, which had been dimly lit by the light streaming in through the windows, was now in complete darkness, as if all the light had been absorbed by something. Her gaze shifted to one of the windows so she could look outside, but there was only blackness. All the alarms in her head went off at once. Something was happening.

She forced herself to stay calm and keep moving, but as she ventured deeper into that dark place, her body tensed more and more, along with her breathing and heart rate, which were accelerating with every passing second. At some point, Emily realized she was trembling, and her first instinct was to think it was from fear, until she noticed the mist coming from her mouth with every breath. That was enough to distract her from her own fear and uncertainty, making her aware of the cold she was feeling.

She stopped dead in her tracks halfway through. A change like that in the atmosphere wasn’t normal. She quickly reached into her pocket to pull out the digital thermometer and check the temperature. A few seconds after pressing the button, the reading showed 4°C. That was much lower than what she had initially registered, considering her initial reading was 12°C.

Momentarily putting aside the unease and nervousness that had overtaken her, she grabbed her radio to contact her partner.

“Hey, Mike?”

The woman waited a few seconds for a response, but nothing came. She tried again.

“Mike, are you there?”

The fact that her partner wasn’t answering worried her a little, but just as she was about to try a third time, her EMF meter lit up in her pocket, beeping to indicate a reading of 2 mG, and at the same time, a light came on at the end of the hallway, startling her and making her turn in that direction.

Her whole body froze when she noticed that, beneath that light, was the silhouette of someone. At first glance, it looked like the figure of a man, but upon closer inspection, Emily realized she couldn’t make out any facial features or clothing. It was a black shadow from head to toe, which alerted her and put her on guard. She didn’t move a single inch, much less look away from that thing, even though the encounter was making her nervous. She knew that certain entities could manifest in that way, so her brain quickly began trying to decipher the nature of that presence.

Suddenly, that beam of light exploded, causing her to jump in her tracks and let out a gasp of surprise. Surprisingly, her flashlight also stopped working at that moment, plunging the area into darkness, though not into silence. The device measuring the electromagnetic field continued to beep insistently, and a few seconds later, the tone rose, registering a reading of 3 mG, then 4. When the woman realized what was happening, her heart skipped a beat.

That thing was getting closer.

Her most basic instinct made her want to run in terror to find her partner, but she was paralyzed, and at the same time, she didn’t want to move either, fearing that might trigger something from the entity that, though invisible, was now right in front of her.

When the meter reached level 5, Emily held her breath involuntarily, as if that entity could suffocate her with its mere presence. The pressure in the air was becoming unbearable with every passing second, and because of it, she could also feel her heartbeat pounding loudly in her chest and in her ears through the annoying beeping of the device. Her more rational side tried to convince her that there was no real danger, but that manifestation was far from being a figment of her own imagination.

The seconds stretched out as if they were minutes, and the woman felt each one as if she had briefly tasted what eternity was, until the sound of the EMF meter cut off abruptly, and she took a sharp breath at the same time she brought her hand to her chest, where her heart was racing from the intensity of that encounter.

Natural light had returned to dimly illuminate the room, yet her flashlight still wouldn’t work. Though the malfunction of the device faded into the background, for only one thought repeated itself in her mind after she realized what they were actually dealing with:

She had to find Mike.

She quickened her pace to reach the stairs. Along the way, her mind was racing, trying to process what she had just witnessed. She had studied that branch of theology for years and had even attended countless seminars and lectures, but no one had ever mentioned that something like that could happen, and she was absolutely certain they were dealing with something that wasn’t just a simple ghost or entity, which made the situation far more dangerous than it actually seemed.

As soon as she reached the first floor, she hurried to the entrance while reaching for her radio to try to contact her partner once more.

“Mike, can you hear me?” she asked with a hint of urgency in her voice.

She waited a few seconds, and when the radio crackled, she felt almost immediate relief.

“I hear you, what’s going on?”

“We have to get out of here as soon as possible,” the woman warned, grabbing her briefcase once she reached the front door.

There was a brief silence on the other end before Mike spoke again. His disbelief was hard to miss.

“Why’s that? We haven’t found anything yet. We can’t go back empty-handed.”

The woman let out a gasp that bordered on frustration and began pacing back and forth like a caged animal.

“I’ll explain on the way, but it’s not safe for us to stay here.”

“The security firm cleared the area; there shouldn’t be anyone here,” the man reminded her. “Just give me ten more minutes, and…”

 Mike suddenly fell silent, but didn’t cut the communication. Emily, for her part, stopped walking abruptly and pricked up her ears. She could have sworn she’d heard something else while her partner was speaking.

Then…

“Chester…?”

The man’s voice came through the radio like an uncertain whisper, and that was enough to alert the blonde.

“Mike,” she said immediately, as a warning, starting to jog down the hallway toward the stairs leading to the underground. “Mike, we came alone. There’s no…”

Then, her blood ran cold, and she froze in the middle of the hallway.

She knew that name. She remembered it from one of her conversations with Dave. Chester was Mike’s former partner before he tragically died under strange circumstances that no one could determine, and if her suspicion was correct, then…

The woman resumed her run and turned the radio back on, this time raising her voice and speaking with greater urgency, almost in desperation.

“Mike, listen to me! Don’t pay attention to that thing! It’s not real!”

However, despite Emily’s constant attempts to get her partner’s attention over the radio, she received no response.

The blonde muttered a curse under her breath before quickly running down the stairs, finding herself in a large space with at least three sets of hallways.

“Ah, fuck,” she blurted out in frustration, looking around before sighing and closing her eyes tightly for a few moments while taking a deep breath. "Get a grip, Armstrong," she told herself before opening her eyes again and continuing straight ahead with quick steps. Since her flashlight hadn’t started working again, she used her phone’s flashlight to light her way.

She called out her partner’s name loudly as she walked quickly through the hallways, until one of the rooms caught her attention, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. There was nothing particularly special about it, but something inside her told her to go in. The door was ajar, almost like an invitation, and she slowly made her way through it.

At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It was an old boiler room with some trash and the occasional abandoned item. But once she reached the back, she noticed something hidden behind a large, rusty boiler. She peered inside with curiosity and unease, only to discover, to her horror and surprise, a ritual summoning circle. As she got closer, she could see that there were melted candles, symbols written around the circle, and in the center of it, what appeared to be dried blood.

That confirmed everything she had been suspecting since that physical manifestation.

She wasn’t going to stop to figure out what kind of demon they had tried to contact, since the urgency of finding her partner was much greater.

She hurried out of the room to run through the hallways again in search of Mike. Every so often she shouted his name, but she heard nothing. There was only that oppressive, intimidating silence.

Until, as she turned a corner in a hallway, the light from her flashlight caught something in the distance. After focusing her eyes a bit, she saw it: her partner was lying on the floor.

Emily ran to him, but let out a gasp of surprise when she saw something that worried her and made her stomach sink.

On the floor, right beneath his head, was a dark pool.

Blood.

Emily’s breath caught in her throat and her body froze for a few seconds before she snapped back to her senses and knelt beside him, setting her briefcase on the floor so she could examine Mike closely.

He was unconscious.

Shit.

Shit!

The woman could tolerate paranormal activity without reaching the brink of a panic attack, but this was a real emergency. One that could end very badly if she didn’t act in time and in the right way.

She checked her phone to try to call an ambulance, but down there, the signal was nonexistent. She cursed under her breath.

Trying to find the security guards was also an option, but leaving Mike alone with that entity wasn’t something she felt entirely comfortable with. In fact, it was a terrible idea.

She leaned over the man to check if he was still breathing, and to her relief, he was—though very faintly—so she carefully tried to shake him a little to bring him back.

“Mike? Mike, wake up, come on,” the woman said, her heart racing. At that point, she no longer knew where her anxiety over the man’s injury began and where her anxiety over her discovery ended.

For several minutes, Emily tried to revive her partner, taking care not to move his head too much to avoid causing further injury; but nothing seemed to work, and that was making her anxiety grow, because what if the injury was severe? She couldn’t live with that on her conscience. She knew it.

Then, just as she was about to decide to go up to the first floor to call an ambulance, she heard something that made her freeze.

There, at the end of the hallway, in that darkness almost as black as the one she had witnessed not long ago, a growl could be heard.

 It sounded like an animal, but anyone who heard it would agree that whatever it was, it didn’t belong in this world at all.

It took the woman a few seconds to react; she practically lunged toward her briefcase and entered a simple code to open it. Inside were countless religious items and symbols, ranging from crosses, small images of saints, rosaries, vials of holy water, black salt, and a book. As she hurried to pull one of the vials and a rosary from the briefcase, she could clearly hear that growl beginning to draw closer.

The tension grew with every passing second, but suddenly it seemed that Emily was no longer acting out of nervousness. Something inside her clicked, and even though she didn’t feel calm—her heartbeat had quickened again—she was focused on what she had to do. She quickly opened the bottle of holy water to pour it on the floor in front of them and behind them, creating a sacred space where the entity couldn’t reach them.

At that, the growl stopped for a few seconds, as if it had realized what was happening.

Emily seized the moment to quickly wrap the rosary around one of her wrists, making sure it was secure before bringing her hands behind her neck to unfasten something. That medallion she never took off, she was now removing it so she could put it on Mike, who still hadn’t regained consciousness.

The woman knelt beside him, carefully placing the object around his neck and trying not to move him too much, and as she did so, she began to recite an ancient prayer in Latin. Her words seemed to have an immediate effect, for the air had suddenly grown heavy and cold, but, on top of that, the blonde woman began to feel pressure. In her ears, in her head, in her jaw… She felt the urge to close her mouth, but she knew that was exactly what that entity was after, and she wasn’t going to give it to it. 

She repeated the prayer louder and dared to look toward the darkness. Her nervousness had suddenly turned into determination. She hadn’t spent years training in that branch of theology just to hesitate the moment she found herself face-to-face with one of those beings. 

However, the change in the woman’s attitude and her persistence with the prayer seemed to unnerve the demon, which began to growl louder and louder until it sounded like a dog about to attack. And so it did. Thoughts began to race through the woman’s mind, trying to make her feel fear, guilt over past mistakes, and doubt about her own abilities, but at that point she was so convinced of what she was doing that she barely paid them any attention.

But… if I keep going, someone else is going to die because of me.

That certainly made her pause.

Mike was still lying on the ground, and she didn’t know if his wound was still bleeding. The uncertainty of not knowing whether he was alive suddenly began to weigh heavier on her. It was inevitable that her mind would start spiraling into that vortex of memories and pain.

No. Don’t stop.

The woman shook her head slightly as if she had snapped out of a kind of trance, and despite her surprise at that sudden thought so different from the others, she continued.

As this was happening, the man on the ground began to stir a little, moaning and alerting the woman, but she didn’t stop her prayer, repeating it at least two more times. At some point, the unnatural noise cut off abruptly, for no reason at all. It was so sudden that it took Emily a moment to process it, especially since the cold persisted, but as soon as she was sure nothing else was going to happen, she turned to Mike again. 

She wasn’t entirely sure if it had gone away for the moment, but she wasn’t in a position to find out either.

“Can you move?”

The raven-haired man frowned as he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head and instinctively brought one of his hands to the area, but Emily stopped him by grabbing his wrist.

“Don’t do it,” the woman warned. “I need to know if you can get up.”

Mike, still dazed, blinked a couple of times before nodding slightly. The man finally managed to get back on his feet slowly with his partner’s help.

The rest happened too quickly. Due to the urgency, they had to leave the company’s equipment behind, though Emily refused to abandon her briefcase. They made their way up the stairs carefully but quickly and left the abandoned building to get into the truck. Since her partner wasn’t in any condition to drive, the blonde got into the driver’s seat after helping him settle into his seat. Once outside, she quickly explained the situation to the guards and drove off toward the nearest hospital so the man could receive medical attention.

───── ✦ ─────

When Emily was finally able to sit down in the waiting room, her body slumped into the chair and she let out a deep sigh of exhaustion with her eyes closed. That night had been more than she had ever experienced in her entire career, and she wasn’t sure she’d be able to forget it in a long time.

At least she had made sure to take her partner to the hospital to get him treated before her own body gave in to exhaustion, and her excuse about the cause of the accident had been convincing enough that the clinic staff didn’t ask any further questions, which her mind was grateful for, since she wasn’t sure she had the energy left to offer any more explanations than that.

She rested for a few minutes, and during that time, her mind genuinely managed to avoid focusing on anything other than that moment of calm in the middle of the waiting room, in that uncomfortable chair.

Just as she was about to fall asleep, she suddenly opened her eyes remembering she had to report the incident, and reached into her pocket for her phone. She opened her contacts and called her boss. The phone rang for a long time before Bill finally answered on the other end with a hoarse, sleepy voice. Of course he was sleeping while they were going through the most exhausting night of their lives so far.

“Emily…? It’s… four in the morning. Why are you calling?”

The woman lazily closed her eyes again and sighed softly before speaking.

“Don’t ask me about work right now; I can’t talk about it in public,” she began. “Mike had an accident.”

On the other end of the line, she could hear the rustling of the bedsheets, as if Bill had sat up suddenly. Honestly? She would have reacted just like him.

“What? Is he okay?” This time his voice sounded much more alert and awake.

“He’s still alive, if that’s what you’re asking,” she murmured. “I found him on the floor, unconscious and with a wound on his head,” she explained, bringing a hand to her temple to rub it lightly.

 Now that the adrenaline had subsided, she could feel the tension in her body. “I couldn’t call an ambulance because there was no signal in the basement, and I couldn’t leave him alone either, so I had to wake him up. On the way to the hospital, he told me he didn’t remember much of what happened before I found him, and the building was supposed to be empty, so I guess he fainted and hit his head when he fell.”

Bill listened intently to every word, but his sense of concern was growing.

“Where are you now? I’ll be right there.”

Emily’s eyes fluttered open briefly in surprise at his reaction. The fact that Bill showed that kind of concern spoke volumes about him.

“Uh… We’re at Los Angeles General Medical Center. It’s the closest one to where we were.”

“All right. I’ll be there as soon as I can,” the man assured her. “Are they treating Mike?”

“Yes. They said they’d give him a CT scan and keep him under observation for a few hours,” she murmured, glancing toward the entrance to the emergency room. “Maybe they’ll let me see him later. Or, at least, I hope so.”

“I’ll be there soon. Don’t move from there.”

Bill didn’t even let the woman answer; he’d already hung up.

Emily, for her part, sighed deeply and put her phone back in her pocket before closing her eyes again. The silence of the waiting room made her want to sleep. Unlike the abandoned psychiatric hospital, that tranquility was a bit more welcoming.

Then, her thoughts gradually began to wander back to the events of that night, now in a much more practical and logical way. She suddenly remembered again that she hadn’t even taken a photo of the ritual circle and mentally scolded herself for it. Though she immediately scolded herself again for scolding herself. She had something much more important to do than take a stupid photo of the place.

She should definitely go back there another day, though this time she would strongly ask Bill to bring a larger group. She would also ask if there was anyone with experience in energy cleansing. Not for the place, but for her and Mike. A simple energy cleansing wouldn’t be enough to deal with what was there.

Slowly, her thoughts ceased to be coherent and began to feel more like a distant echo in her own mind. She was falling asleep.

She didn’t know how long she’d been sitting there dozing, but a gentle touch on her shoulder, along with the sweet voice of an elderly woman saying, “Wake up, they’ll let you see your friend”, alerted her, causing her to lift her head suddenly, somewhat dazed.

She blinked a couple of times to adjust to the bright light in the room, and when she turned to look at the woman who had woken her, she found the room empty, except for the receptionists at the desk. None of them could have done that. It wasn’t the first time something this strange had happened to her.

Realizing this, she smiled and murmured a quiet “thank you,” just as the emergency room doors opened to let a nurse in.

“Visitors for Michael Shinoda?”

Emily stood up from her seat to approach the man, who immediately smiled politely at her and led her inside. He led her to a small room with a sliding curtain and dim lighting; inside was Mike, staring at the ceiling with tired eyes, an IV in his arm feeding him some fluids, and a small bandage on the wound. As soon as he noticed their presence, he lifted his head and raised his eyebrows slightly, but it took him a few moments to speak.

“You’re still here?” he asked in surprise.

Emily let out a short laugh.

“What kind of question is that?” she said, stepping into the room.

The nurse warned her not to stress the patient too much because of his concussion, and because of that, he’d probably have a hard time processing what they were saying. Then, the nurse excused himself before leaving the room, closing the curtain so they’d have some privacy.

“I didn’t think you’d stay, that’s all,” the man admitted, carefully repositioning his head against the pillow on the stretcher. “You could have left.”

“And leave you alone? I don’t want to give you the wrong impression and let you think I’m a bitch,” Emily laughed, walking over to the chair that was there to collapse into it. It felt a little more uncomfortable than the one in the waiting room, and she miss the one from there. “I called Bill to tell him what happened. He’s on his way.”

Mike looked just as surprised as Emily when Bill told him he was coming to the hospital.

“Really? Wow. I wasn’t expecting something like that.”

The woman shrugged, smiling slightly.

“Neither was I, and you know him better than I do,” she paused briefly, her face softening. “Are you okay?”

“Not really,” he murmured, sighing. “My head hurts.”

“I bet it does. You took a hard hit.”

The dark-haired man remained silent for a few moments, then carefully turned his head to look at her.

“What happened down there?”

Emily raised an eyebrow, somewhat confused.

“I already told you, I found you unconscious, and...”

“I’m not talking about me,” he hastened to reply, even though he felt somewhat dazed from his concussion. “You were doing something when I was waking up.”

The woman fell silent for a few moments, staring intently at her partner. According to the nurse’s instructions, she wasn’t supposed to upset him.

“I don’t think you’re in any condition to…”

“Just tell me,” he demanded, though his voice softened slightly afterward. “Please.”

Emily sighed heavily and slumped a little in her seat.

“Fine, but if your pain gets any worse, it’s your fault. You wanted to know,” she said, furrowing her brow slightly. “I was… trying to make the entity go away. Or at least keep it at bay.”

The man on the stretcher mulled over those words and tried to focus on the memory of Emily as he was waking up. The woman was saying something in another language that, thanks to his daze, he couldn’t quite catch; in fact, he barely remembered any of it. The mental fog was much stronger than he was at that moment.

“I see,” he murmured thoughtfully. “Do we know what entity it is?”

“You can’t possibly be serious,” the blonde said incredulously. “Are you thinking about work even though you’re in such bad state? Don’t you have a wife you should tell that you’re here? You know, more important things?”

Emily’s words made him open his eyes in surprise. It was true.

 He hadn’t told Anna he’d been in an accident. If he called her now, he’d probably wake her up and worry her. She might even get up to come to the hospital where they were, and he didn’t know if he wanted that. He could handle her anger in the morning when he got there and explained everything, but he couldn’t bear the thought of making her suffer by worrying her so late at night.

“I guess…” he said somewhat reluctantly, looking back at the ceiling.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments. Outside, the sounds of machines and the faint voices of the nurses could be heard, filling the strange silence that had settled in.

“I’ll need to talk to you when you’re feeling better,” the blonde said suddenly, staring at a fixed point on the floor. She looked tired. “I need you to try to remember everything you can about what you experienced before you passed out. And maybe everything you felt after you woke up.”

Mike frowned slightly.

“Why?”

“It’s important.”

The man didn’t ask any more questions; he simply nodded slightly, though the movement caused him some pain around the wound.

By the time Bill arrived, it was already around 4:52 a.m. By then, the CT scan results had come in, revealing that the man had suffered a mild to moderate concussion that required observation for a few more hours. Bill sent Emily home to rest, assuring her that he would take care of everything else regarding Mike. She thanked him and went home.

Although she wasn’t going to lie, a small part of her—the most anxious part—suggested going back to the psychiatric hospital to take photos of the ritual circle, but the energy drain she had suffered herself when “confronting” that demon was much too intense, so she simply gathered her things from the truck, left the keys with Bill, ordered an Uber, and headed home.

Besides, she wasn’t in any condition to face that thing again. Now she understood why exorcisms took so long and required breaks between sessions.

Emily lost all awareness of the world the moment her head hit the pillow, as she had fallen asleep almost immediately.

───── ✦ ─────

Over the next five days of his recovery, Mike kept thinking about what Emily had asked him at the hospital. Although his doctor had advised him not to exert himself mentally in any way, he was stubborn enough to dismiss and ignore the recommendation, even if it made him feel unwell. To be honest, though, it frustrated him even more that it took some effort to recall the events of that night. With effort, he managed to retrieve the occasional fragment of his memory, but it wasn’t enough for him.

He mulled it over for hours, until he was interrupted by Anna, who scolded him for not following his doctor’s orders and resting properly. Mike had no choice but to obey and go to bed to get some rest, since going against what she said was a completely lost battle.

But just as he had managed to relax, something came to mind, and turned his head toward the nightstand beside the bed, reaching out to grab the object he had left there. He hadn’t noticed it until his wife mentioned it once he got home after being discharged from the hospital, but around his neck was a necklace with a medallion that hadn’t been there before.

Upon examining it more closely, he realized it was a medallion of Saint Benedict, usually worn by religious figures to protect against evil energies, but also used by bishops and priests as a fundamental tool in exorcisms, since the saint was known to be the patron of exorcists given the alleged story of that Christian monk.

He stared at it for a few more seconds before another fragment of memory surfaced.

When he woke up on the basement floor, the first thing he had seen was the woman kneeling beside him. She seemed to be saying something, but not to him, since she was looking down the hallway. Something else he remembered was that the blonde woman was holding something to her chest, near her neck. It could have been the medal, but he wasn’t entirely sure.

The memory kept swirling around in Mike’s head, but it had planted a strong suspicion in him. If this turned out to be true... then what was going on in that psychiatric hospital was more complicated than he’d initially thought.

Then, as if by some very specific coincidence, his phone rang twice, signaling the arrival of a couple of messages from an unknown number.

[Unknown number]

Hey, it's Emily. I got your number from Dave.
Are you feeling better?

The man blinked in surprise and stared at the message for a couple of seconds before reacting and saving the contact. 

[Mike]

I’m feeling better than I did the day I hit my head, at least.

[Emily]

Good to hear
You won’t be coming into the office until next Thursday, right?

[Mike]

Bill banned me from coming in until then.

[Emily]

That’s too bad.
Well, in that case, I’ll see you tomorrow at the café two blocks from the office, at five.

[Mike]

You didn’t even ask if I could.

[Emily]

Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were so busy resting.

[Mike]

…
See you there.

[Emily]

That’s what I thought.

With a deep sigh, Mike set his phone down on the nightstand next to the medallion, which he had intended to take with him so he could ask Emily about it, though by that point it was almost obvious that it belonged to her.

He closed his eyes again, but this time he was determined to get some rest. The headache was starting to bother him.

───── ✦ ─────

The afternoon of the following day arrived much faster than the man could have anticipated. Since he still didn’t have his doctor’s permission to drive, he had to take an Uber to get him to the address.

Upon arriving at the location, it wasn’t hard to find Emily. He recognized her immediately; she was sitting at one of the outdoor tables reading a book alongside a steaming cup of coffee. Unlike the other night, she now had her hair down, and the blonde waves fell over her shoulders. Her clothes were different too; she was wearing a much more comfortable outfit. He assumed she wasn’t on duty, since, at the office, Bill—being the old-fashioned man that he was—liked everyone to dress a certain way, and what the woman was wearing was far from that.

When he got close enough, she looked up and smiled at him.

“You’re early,” said Mike, pulling up one of the empty chairs to sit across from her.

“I got here about ten minutes ago. You haven’t missed a thing,” the woman joked, setting the book aside.

His gaze inevitably drifted toward the book, but he couldn’t make out the title. Because it didn’t even have one; it was simply a red book with gold trim.

“So,” Emily spoke again, catching his attention. “Did you think about what I told you at the hospital?”

He nodded, but just as he was about to answer, a waitress approached, asking if he’d like to order anything. Mike asked for a simple espresso.

“I’ve been thinking about that all week,” he admitted, sighing deeply after the waitress walked away. But… there isn’t much I can remember. I’m sorry."

The blonde looked away slightly, lost in thought.

“Are you sure you don’t remember anything else?”

Mike remained silent for a few moments before reaching into his pocket and placing the medallion on the table.

“Nothing more than what you were doing when I woke up.”

Emily’s gaze shifted between the man in front of her and his charm on the table. After a few seconds, she let out a brief sigh along with a soft laugh.

“All right,” she said, shifting in her chair to sit up straighter. “I guess my explanation at the hospital wasn’t enough for you.”

“Not at all,” he agreed.

“...But I also think you already know, don’t you?” She raised her eyebrows slightly at her companion while tapping the medallion a couple of times with her index finger. “Because if you know what this is, it’s very easy to guess why I gave it to you.”

The man smiled and shook his head at her response.

“I don’t believe in that sort of thing.”

Emily let out a laugh.

“And yet you work in this field,” she pointed out with amusement, before her expression grew serious. “You don’t remember what the last thing we talked about on the radio was, do you?”

Suddenly, the atmosphere between them had shifted, becoming more serious. She didn’t know why, but Mike had started to feel uneasy because of it.

“No, otherwise I would have told you.”

The blonde nodded slowly.

“Do you want to know what was the last thing we talked about?” the woman said, and a single glance from Mike was enough for her to continue. “I was trying to tell you we should leave, but you didn’t want to because we hadn’t found anything. You asked me for five more minutes.”

The dark-haired man furrowed his brow slightly. He didn’t remember that conversation.

Seeing his reaction, Emily thought about it for a moment.

“Do you remember going down to the basement?”

Mike nodded.

“Do you remember how you felt down there?”

That was a bit easier.

“Yeah, it was colder than on the first floor.”

“Anything else?”

He thought about it for a moment before answering, and suddenly remembered.

“My head hurt a little, but that’s normal for me.”

Even though the man tried to downplay it, Emily tilted her head slightly, looking at him with her eyes slightly narrowed.

“Do you suffer from migraines constantly?”

“Sometimes, yes.”

“Do they happen all the time… or on certain occasions?”

Mike had the urge to answer immediately, but for some reason, he paused to think it over carefully.

It was true that he suffered from headaches, but they always occurred when he was at work or visiting certain places. It had never happened to him while at home or in the office, and until that moment, he’d thought it was just stress, but that didn’t make much sense, because there were plenty of times when he felt overwhelmed but didn’t have a headache at all. It always seemed to be triggered by something else.

Faced with the man’s silence, Emily spoke again.

“Is there any chance you’re sensitive to energies?”

The dark-haired man looked at her as if she’d said something incredibly ridiculous, but then he gave it some thought.

“I couldn’t say.”

She nodded sympathetically, but didn’t say much more, as the waitress from earlier was approaching with her partner’s order.

She waited for her to leave, then let out a sigh as she leaned slightly toward him, lowering her voice slightly to avoid being overheard by other customers.

“Listen, I don’t think the fact that you fainted was something… you know, for ‘normal’ reasons.”

Mike frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“If you’re sensitive to energies like I think you are, then you had something like an overload.” When the woman saw the incredulous look on the man’s face, she smiled, letting out a short laugh. “I know it sounds ridiculous. Believe me. But you work in this field yourself, so…”

“Was the place that bad that something like that would happen to me?” He raised an eyebrow, finally deigning to take a sip of his forgotten espresso on the table.

Emily grimaced.

“Near where you were, I found a ritual circle.”

Startled, the man choked on his coffee. The blonde looked at him with a mixture of horror and a touch of guilt.

“Excuse me!?” he gasped in surprise once he’d recovered a bit.

“Okay, of all the reactions, I didn’t expect that one,” he said, blinking a couple of times before shaking his head. "That’s why I asked you to try to remember as much as possible before you passed out. If you had felt anything, it could have been a terrible headache, difficulty breathing, even chills, so..."

As the woman listed all those things, all those images Mike thought were lost began to flood his mind, and little by little his expression shifted to one of surprise. All of that had happened to him, but... weren’t those normal things? He tried to focus on those memories as much as he could, and suddenly, he remembered something else. Something that left him blank for a few moments.

“Mike, are you okay?” the blonde asked, tilting her head slightly.

“No… I mean, yes. I’m fine,” he hurried to say, adjusting his coat in a nervous gesture. “So, about what you found…”

Emily studied her partner’s face for several seconds, trying to figure out what had caused that reaction.

“True,” she murmured. “I didn’t stop to look at the circle for very long, but there was evidence of an offering. Something about it must have gone wrong, because the entire building is infested.”

The mention of that made Mike sit up a little in his seat, suddenly interested. “Infestation” was the term theologians used to describe the influence of an evil presence on a place or object. As far as he knew, its effects could vary, but generally, the energy was dense, and the most susceptible tended to suffer from physical sensations and an intensification of all kinds of… negative thoughts. With every passing second he spent talking to that woman, Mike began to feel increasingly uncomfortable, but not because she seemed strange to him—not at all—but because every memory that came to him began to make more sense.

“What’s down there isn’t just anything,” she murmured. “And…”

The blonde seemed to hesitate. Mike had the feeling there was something she wasn’t telling him.

“Something happened, didn’t it?”

Emily looked up.

“To both of us,” she admitted, fidgeting slightly with her fingers.

The dark-haired man noticed she was wearing several rings, one of them bearing the symbol of the medal. He thought he remembered she hadn’t been wearing anything on her hands that day, but he wasn’t sure.

“What exactly happened that night, Emily?”

The woman looked down again for a few seconds before beginning to tell him what she had witnessed on the second floor. She also assured him that there was nothing wrong with her mentally, and that she underwent psychiatric and neurological exams every year to rule out any issues that might cause her to hallucinate. Mike secretly admired the seriousness with which she took her work, but he still found it hard to believe what she had just told him.

“And… there’s also something else.”

His partner looked at her expectantly and curiously.

“I wanted you to remember things, because when I called you on the radio… I heard something, and then you said a name.”

For some reason, his partner’s words sent a chill down his spine. Something inside him told him he already knew what she was referring to.

“You said ‘Chester.’”

At the mention of the name, Mike closed his eyes briefly. Years might have passed since his death, but it never got any easier.

“If I did say it, I don’t remember. I’m sorry,” the man said with a touch of pity.

Emily waved her hand.

“It’s okay, no big deal,” she said, then sighed, taking a few seconds before speaking again. “Did he… mean anything to you?”

The question took the dark-haired man by surprise, and he let out a small laugh.

“A lot. Maybe more than I realized at the time.”

Mike fell silent, staring at his cup. There were so many things he could say, but he wasn’t sure where to start. And Emily hadn’t even asked for any more explanation than that, but something about her made him want to open up a little to her even though he didn’t know her at all. It was strange, but he didn’t dwell on it too much.

“He was my best friend,” he began, taking a small breath as if he were preparing for something. “We worked together for so long that at some point it felt weird when we weren’t right next to each other. We were practically inseparable, you know?” His hands swirled the coffee cup in front of him slightly in a contemplative gesture. "He was someone who could drive you up the wall in the best possible way. Not a single day went by without him making me laugh at least once" Mike’s lips stretched slightly into a small smile at the memory of his old partner. "Loud as they come, eloquent like few others. He was smart and witty, always knew what to say, even if it was something stupid. He was there for me during the darkest moments of my life."

Emily listened attentively to her partner, smiling slightly at the obvious affection he had for his late best friend. In a way, she could empathize with him. She, too, had lost a loved one, and even to this day she remembered him fondly, though the wound remained open despite the years that had passed since then.

“When he died… It took me a while to come to terms with it,” the man continued, softening his expression. “I didn’t even cry when they held a memorial service in his name. In my mind… he was still there, even if I couldn’t see him,” he paused briefly, sighing and slumping slightly in his seat. "I think even to this day I have a hard time coming to terms with his death, because… it was all so sudden and strange. A part of me still refuses to believe that what happened to him was an accident and is still searching for answers, so I guess it makes sense that that thing used that against me."

Emily was about to respond about Chester, but when she heard that last part, she stared at him in bewilderment for a few seconds before smiling.

“You’re smart,” she conceded. “This job suits you. You’re quick to put two and two together.”

Seeing the woman’s reaction, Mike couldn’t help but smile too.

“That gave me enough of a clue,” he said, nodding toward the medal. “I’m still a little reluctant to believe it completely, but I think I’m more surprised that a demonologist has joined the company. There aren’t many of those.”

“It’s true, there aren’t many of those, and most of them are religious men. In three years of study, I didn’t find a single woman in the field,” she said, rolling her eyes.

Mike raised his eyebrows.

“Oh, so that’s what you were doing all that time,” he murmured thoughtfully. “Is there a reason you wanted to study this?”

The blonde lowered her gaze slightly with an indecipherable expression on her face, and the raven-haired man realized he’d struck a nerve.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”

“No, it’s fine,” she waved him off and sighed deeply. “It’s a slightly masochistic reason,” she said, laughing a little at herself before speaking in a low voice. “God, where do I even begin to explain this…” She ran a hand through her hair as she tried to sort out her own thoughts. Once she had a clear idea, she continued. “Two years before my previous company closed, I met a girl I got along with pretty well, and we started dating shortly after. At some point, she found out what I did. I usually lie to people about my job, but on that occasion I had to tell her everything,“ she murmured, making a small grimace with her lips, something that looked like a smile. “I thought she was going to call me crazy, but it turned out she was interested in that kind of thing… Maybe too much."

“Maybe too much?” the man repeated.

Emily nodded slowly.

“I shared everything I knew with her, and it became common for our conversations to revolve around that,” she said, staring at a spot on the table. “But, over time… she started to change. She began to withdraw.”

Mike narrowed his eyes slightly. He had a certain feeling about where this was going.

“We didn’t live together, so I couldn’t know what she was doing most of the time,” she shrugged slightly. “Over time, she started making excuses every time we were supposed to meet up. We argued more, got angry with each other more often, she became aggressive… I genuinely thought she was cheating on me, but it was worse than that,” she let out a dry laugh. “I don’t know if I would have preferred her to be cheating on me instead of what she was actually doing,” she paused briefly, drinking the rest of what was left in her cup. The liquid was already cold by then, but she didn’t care much. "At some point, she started getting sick. And no matter how many specialists she saw, none of them had a clear answer about what was happening to her… And you know how tedious it is when science fails."

With that hint, the man sensed what she was getting at. Whenever there was an illness for which they had no answer, they turned to experimentation.

“I don’t remember exactly how it all went down, but I sought spiritual help for her. And of all the things that could have caused that, I never imagined that…” Emily let out a little snort and shook her head, smiling barely perceptibly. “Well. That was the first time they raised the possibility of demonic possession with me. It turns out she was trying to practice black magic.”

At the revelation, the man couldn’t help but show his surprise.

“And what happened?”

The woman sighed.

“Her body was deteriorating badly, and one day she just… left,” she said, but though her voice sounded calm, there was a certain pain in her eyes. “Besides, Vatican bureaucracy prevented us from performing any kind of exorcism. They have to verify that it’s a real case before sending someone qualified,” she gestured with her hand, rolling her eyes with a certain disdain.

“That’s why you wanted to study demonology.”

Emily nodded.

“That’s why I wanted to study demonology,” she repeated. “I needed to understand. I needed someone to give me an answer, even if it wasn’t worth it anymore. Although… every day I wonder if I could have done something to prevent all of that.”

Her words resonated deeply with Mike. He himself had asked himself that exact same question, over and over again, and deep down, they were both searching for something that would give meaning to their losses so they wouldn’t drown in the pain.

“It’s not your fault,” the man said suddenly, even surprising himself a little with it. “I don’t think you could have stopped her, even if you’d warned her. Often, people have already made up their minds…”

Mike’s voice trailed off little by little as he realized what he was saying, and he had to clear his throat a bit to get rid of the lump forming in his throat.

“…Thank you,” Emily murmured softly, clearly just as moved as he was.

They both remained silent for several seconds before she spoke again.

“Anyway,” she murmured, clearing her throat slightly as well and sitting up straight in her seat. “Demons tend to affect people’s psyches and feed off them,” she explained. “Although, in this particular case, it wanted to move from infesting a place to infesting a person’s aura. It’s trapped there, so it’s normal that it would want some sort of vehicle to leave the hospital.”

“Oh,” the man raised his eyebrows with interest. “Is that different from possession?”

“Quite a bit, though it’s still dangerous,” she admitted. “It didn’t work on me because I was wearing the amulet, so it tried to go after you. If I hadn’t noticed and gone to look for you, it might have succeeded.”

“What a son of a bitch,” Mike said, letting out a short laugh that made the woman laugh too.

“You can say that again,” she agreed, smiling. The mood of the conversation had suddenly lightened, becoming more comfortable again. “The good thing about all this is that we don’t have to deal with it again, because it was just a diagnosis, right? It’s just a matter of writing up the report, and that’s it.”

Mike made a face, almost like a pout.

“I wanted to go back and see the ritual…”

The blonde rolled her eyes, pulling her cell phone out of her pocket. She swiped her thumb across the screen several times and slid it toward him.

“Creep.”

“I’m proud of it,” he said, taking the device. A gasp of surprise escaped his lips as he looked at the photos. He’d never seen an attempted ritual before.

“Pretty cool, right?”

“Am I still the creep here?,” the man asked, looking up with a mocking expression.

They both laughed, and suddenly it felt as if they’d known each other their whole lives.

Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea for Bill to pair them up.